No, I'm not going to mention the spelling - dubious though it is - or aim any cheap puns at the French developers who ought to have spent a little more time poring over their English dictionaries, especially since they made a similar mistake last time with the original Gobliiins. I'm not going to do that at all, but if I was going to, I'd say this - the spelling is ridiculous and our cross
It's not long since we reviewed Gobliiins, but already those industrious bods at Coktel Vision have come up with yet another adventure for our erstwhile elfen friends. At least this is what one would assume. On closer inspection though, it transpires that two altogether new Gobliins (no letters about the spelling please - it's all correct, I assure you) have replaced the original three. This makes Gobliins 2 a sequel something along the lines of that fabled movie Grease 2, whereby an already dubious storyline was minutely changed and similar characters introduced in order to milk the profits even further.
The king Gobliin (let's just dispense with the silly spelling for now, eh?) has had his son kidnapped by the nasty and evil Amoniak, who's still narked off over being defeated in a battle by the king some 50 years earlier. To complete the king's humiliation, Amoniak has made the king's son his jester, and although new to the job the now Prince Buffoon is said to be already challenging such comic legends as Shane Ritchie and Andre O'Connor for the title of funniest man in the world.
This is all well and good, but the king would rather like his son back, so he can once again engage in the customary royal duties of wearing maroon pantaloons and having his friends beheaded for beating him at hopscotch.
A problem is the fact that Amoniak has about four million ferocious beasts protecting himself and the prince at all times. Of course the only people stupid enough to attempt the unlikely rescue are a couple of dedicated Goblins, Winkle and Fingus.
Winkle fancies himself at something of a card - he's a cheeky young fella and tends to get a good drubbing at some point from just about everybody he encounters. Fingus is the gentleman of the two - a kind of Sid Little to Winkle's Eddie Large if you like, the difference being Fingus doesn't attempt to play a guitar only to be disturbed by Winkle's comedy banter, as was the ilk the with aforementioned duo. But enough of these comedianic allegories, and onto the game.
Those who have played the original will be familiar with the gameplay, but will probably be thankful that this sequel sports one less sprite, and is therefore less fiddly to control. Since the whole point is to rescue the dippy prince, who as mentioned is under extremely heavy guard, most of the game involves overcoming various guardians in finding your way to his captor.
The goblins must work together to solve the puzzles - in a specific order in some cases - and although frustrating at times, there are loads of humorous asides that take away some of that "Aarrgghh!..." element that quite often causes serious malfunctions in machinery due to its being repeatedly bludgeoned by a variation of heavy household implements.
Despite there being two characters to manipulate, the point-and-
Thankfully, the superb cartoon graphics and funny FX (not the music mind - turn it off for God's sake) more than compensate.
Hardened adventurers are unlikely to sustain major brain damage in attempting to complete the game, though the jollity of it all will more than satisfy.
In short, Gobliins 2 is a hilarious adventure that will provide a good few hours of chuckles and hair-